Wozzeck

[Spineur]

Up on arte now, the "Wozzeck" from Zurich that ran earlier in the 2015/16 season

Thanks for pointing out this broadcast to us.  I recorded it, and watched it over the last couple of nights.
Berg music is indeed quite beautiful: it is not really atonal but it doesnt use standard major/minor harmonies either.  It is a very delicate somewhat elaborate music, perhaps too much for some of the rough characters which are portrayed.  Berg uses a specific leitmotiv for each character and this  helps also the readability.
In this production, the use of multiple frames, which open and close,  is quite interesting.  I thought they represented the different layers of Wozzeck troubled mind ?
The opera isnt too long, but it took me a couple evenings to go through it.

[Mirror Image]

Thanks for pointing out this broadcast to us.  I recorded it, and watched it over the last couple of nights.
Berg music is indeed quite beautiful: it is not really atonal but it doesnt use standard major/minor harmonies either.  It is a very delicate somewhat elaborate music, perhaps too much for some of the rough characters which are portrayed.  Berg uses a specific leitmotiv for each character and this  helps also the readability.
In this production, the use of multiple frames, which open and close,  is quite interesting.  I thought they represented the different layers of Wozzeck troubled mind ?
The opera isnt too long, but it took me a couple evenings to go through it.

Berg is certainly a master of his craft no question. The thing with Berg is he makes allusions to tonality through the usage of triads, which gives his music these little access points. It also helps that he was incredibly lyrical and this lyricism makes the music easier to follow even when there's one complex line being played over another.

[bhodges]

Many thanks, king ubu, for posting this! Wozzeck is one of my favorite operas, and though I had read about this production, I had no idea it was available to watch (and for free - another "miracle of the Internet" moment).

--Bruce

[king ubu]

There's lots of good stuff popping up on arte concert all the time ... I can never quite keep up, haven't yet watched "Wozzeck" either, but after your comments I'm looking forward even more to doing so.

[bhodges]

Totally agree: Arte is incredible. Just browsing the site, you could watch things there all day long.

BUT...as luck would have it, a friend alerted me to another Wozzeck, a concert version from just a few days ago, recorded in the Concertgebouw (but with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic). This one is conducted by Markus Stenz, with Florian Boesch in the title role.

http://www.radio4.nl/ntrzaterdagmatinee/video/31/berg-wozzeck

Incredible what is out there.

--Bruce

[bhodges]

...a friend alerted me to another Wozzeck, a concert version from just a few days ago, recorded in the Concertgebouw (but with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic). This one is conducted by Markus Stenz, with Florian Boesch in the title role.

http://www.radio4.nl/ntrzaterdagmatinee/video/31/berg-wozzeck

This Wozzeck (in concert) is quite, quite fine, with an excellent cast and orchestra, beautifully conducted by Stenz. I posted some more impressions in the WAYLT thread.

--Bruce

[Monsieur Croche]

A bit more outside of the box, you might perhaps more readily approach the music of Berg through his later written highly lyric Violin Concerto.

Appropriate and rather usual for the instrument, in this concerto the violin (as well as the orchestra) has longer and more intentionally lyric lines.  Too, this concerto is of about twenty minutes' duration, so not nearly the same kind of 'test' as a full-length opera. 

You can listen to it, several times, without that being such an endeavor. (Repeat listening is almost always the key that opens the door to any music you at first find difficult listening. That is not to say repeat back to back, but at intervals return to the thing and listen again. A familiarity with what was at first alien to you is virtually always the result :-)

Parts of this concerto, of course, veer into the less lyric and more angular, with shorter gestures and in that more agitated expressionist mode, but the overall impression the whole piece leaves one with is that the work is lyric (in the extreme, even) while being very much in the same sort of harmonic language you have found to be a bit of a struggle.

The Violin Concerto seems to be the one piece that opens the door to a readier accessibility for a number of those who first found Berg and / or the serialist Viennese second school composers 'difficult.'

Try it, and after a bit of familiarity with it, then return to Wozzeck.

https://www.youtube.com/v/6Jt69Nq_Qq4


Best regards.

[Mirror Image]

A bit more outside of the box, you might perhaps more readily approach the music of Berg through his later written highly lyric Violin Concerto.

Appropriate and rather usual for the instrument, in this concerto the violin (as well as the orchestra) has longer and more intentionally lyric lines.  Too, this concerto is of about twenty minutes' duration, so not nearly the same kind of 'test' as a full-length opera. 

You can listen to it, several times, without that being such an endeavor. (Repeat listening is almost always the key that opens the door to any music you at first find difficult listening. That is not to say repeat back to back, but at intervals return to the thing and listen again. A familiarity with what was at first alien to you is virtually always the result :-)

Parts of this concerto, of course, veer into the less lyric and more angular, with shorter gestures and in that more agitated expressionist mode, but the overall impression the whole piece leaves one with is that the work is lyric (in the extreme, even) while being very much in the same sort of harmonic language you have found to be a bit of a struggle.

The Violin Concerto seems to be the one piece that opens the door to a readier accessibility for a number of those who first found Berg and / or the serialist Viennese second school composers 'difficult.'

Try it, and after a bit of familiarity with it, then return to Wozzeck.

https://www.youtube.com/v/6Jt69Nq_Qq4


Best regards.

This post certainly has some truth in it as Berg's Violin Concerto was in fact my 'gateway' into the Second Viennese School. Another work from Berg that might help one ease into his idiom is his Three Pieces for Orchestra. I'd also say Seven Early Songs can ease one into his sound-world as well. Unfortunately, one doesn't have a lot to choose from when it comes to Berg, so really if one doesn't respond to any of the afore mentioned works, then it's a high probability that Wozzeck will not be something they'll get under their fingers in the future. He's my favorite of the Second Viennese School, but I've really come around to Schoenberg and Webern, but Webern proved to be the toughest nut to crack given the almost elusiveness of the music. Also with Webern, a piece is over before you're even aware it started.

[Wendell_E]

Another work from Berg that might help one ease into his idiom is his Three Pieces for Orchestra. I'd also say Seven Early Songs can ease one into his sound-world as well.

There's also the Three Fragments from Wozzeck and the Lulu-Suite, to help you ease into the idiom.  James Levine and the MET orchestra made a fine Sony recording, with the Three Pieces for Orchestra.

[Mirror Image]

There's also the Three Fragments from Wozzeck and the Lulu-Suite, to help you ease into the idiom.  James Levine and the MET orchestra made a fine Sony recording, with the Three Pieces for Orchestra.

That's very true. Great suggestions.